Sesame Street Copyright Strike

[minor muppetz]

However, when WWE signed a deal to offer their TV shows on Hulu they almost immediately began cracking down on fans uploading full episodes on YouTube. This is pretty understandable, Hulu isn't going to pay WWE a lot of money for the rights to the shows that anyone can just upload it to YouTube.

But Hulu doesn't charge for viewing (Hulu Plus might). Hulu relies on sponsorship I think. If a program is available for free on both Hulu and YouTube, but only Hulu gets sponsorship money (and I know that certain YouTube channels get sponsors as well), I don't think the fans would be picky regarding where they watch it on (though I guess it's better to watch on Hulu, if we want to support our favorite shows).

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I was just using WWE as an example, but what I was trying to say was that Hulu pays WWE for the right to stream their shows. Fans might not be picky, but every person who watches an unauthorized copy of the show on YouTube means less viewers and less advertising revenue for Hulu. That why when a company or distributor pays the rights to programming they don't want it on YouTube.

 

[antsamthompson9]

Oscarfan took down all the episodes of ETM he uploaded to YT because, he got a copyright claim for one of them. This is nuts! Why has Sesame become just like Viacom and all the other money-greedy companies? Old SW, please come back to us!

 

[Rugratskid]

I just saw that Transportation was uploaded! (Thanks so much! I never got to see that one even as a kid!) So, I downloaded that AND some old SS eps in case they get removed.

 

[Oscarfan]

Oscarfan took down all the episodes of ETM he uploaded to YT because, he got a copyright claim for one of them. This is nuts! Why has Sesame become just like Viacom and all the other money-greedy companies? Old SW, please come back to us!

You seem to have a very skewed idea as to what this is.

Let's put one thing into perspective here: Sesame Workshop is not a company, it's a non-profit organization. They're spending millions of dollars producing content all over the world for us to watch FOR FREE. So, it's totally within their power to remove material from YouTube because A. it's not ours to share and publish and B. the potential of them not having money to fund their entire operation. Excuse them for trying to save a buck. I don't agree with this new policy that they're starting to have, but they technically have every right to have it. I was hesitant to upload that Sea Captain the musical bit because I knew it would be on the DVD soon, so there would've been no point in uploading it, but I did it because several people asked for it.

SW is hardly doing any of this of selfish, "money-greedy" reasons. And in the grand scheme of things, who cares? There's literally hours of other Sesame material on their site and elsewhere on YT. What's a few videos you can see regularly on TV gonna matter if they're gone?

 

[antsamthompson9]

You seem to have a very skewed idea as to what this is.

Let's put one thing into perspective here: Sesame Workshop is not a company, it's a non-profit organization. They're spending millions of dollars producing content all over the world for us to watch FOR FREE. So, it's totally within their power to remove material from YouTube because A. it's not ours to share and publish and B. the potential of them not having money to fund their entire operation. Excuse them for trying to save a buck. I don't agree with this new policy that they're starting to have, but they technically have every right to have it. I was hesitant to upload that Sea Captain the musical bit because I knew it would be on the DVD soon, so there would've been no point in uploading it, but I did it because several people asked for it.

SW is hardly doing any of this of selfish, "money-greedy" reasons. And in the grand scheme of things, who cares? There's literally hours of other Sesame material on their site and elsewhere on YT. What's a few videos you can see regularly on TV gonna matter if they're gone?

Still, it sucks they're starting to be like that.

 

[BuddyBoy600alt]

Still, it sucks they're starting to be like that.

I am very sorry, guys. I had to remove all my Sesame Street videos. I am very sorry, MarshalGrover.

 

[Drtooth]

Let's put one thing into perspective here: Sesame Workshop is not a company, it's a non-profit organization. They're spending millions of dollars producing content all over the world for us to watch FOR FREE. So, it's totally within their power to remove material from YouTube because A. it's not ours to share and publish and B. the potential of them not having money to fund their entire operation. Excuse them for trying to save a buck. I don't agree with this new policy that they're starting to have, but they technically have every right to have it. I was hesitant to upload that Sea Captain the musical bit because I knew it would be on the DVD soon, so there would've been no point in uploading it, but I did it because several people asked for it.

Sesame Workshop I can at least be kind of sympathetic towards, given their budget woes. I still don't see how a couple thousand people (at most) who wouldn't buy the DVDs anyway cause such a dent. I'm sure plenty of people pirated crappy digicam copies of The Avengers, and that didn't stop it from being one of the highest grossing films of all time. Had they not got a hold of pirated footage, I'm sure they would've gone without until a friend bought the DVD and they borrowed it. Essentially losing money that wasn't there to begin with. There will always be pirates. The thing is to work around them in a fair enough way that gives them a superior legal option. The American anime distribution companies learned that lesson, and far better than regular American broadcasters. Protip: Exclusive distribution rights actually encourage piracy.

Anyway, I think Buck may be onto something. It does sound partially like the DVD distributors have a hand in SW's newfound aggressiveness. As long as they don't go after short segments, fan remixes, Youtube Poops, or rare stuff they can't find themselves. If they do, they've really crossed a line.